School of the Holy Beast

Extravagant, surprisingly beautiful, and unabashedly perverse, director Norifumi Suzuki contributes to the nunsploitation genre with this feast of excess. When a young woman (Yumi Takigawa) decides to investigate her mother's death by entering a convent school, she discovers a horrific den of pleasure and sadomasochistic activities. Encounters with a randy archbishop and a lesbian mother superior lead to episodes of torture, which include the poor girl being bound topless by thorny vines and beaten with long-stemmed roses. A demented anomaly of the genre with its utterly unique, over-the-top action, political and comedic subtexts, and genuinely artistic approach, the action inside the Sacred Heart Convent is unforgettable to say the least.